Yup, Sires was a Kean Republican. They ran him for Congress as long ago as 1986 against incumbent Democrat Frank Guarini (he lost in a landslide). Tried again for a Hudson County Freeholder slot, lost for that, too. Flash forward 20 years and this time he was the Democrat running for Guarini's old seat (Menendez served in between, of course), but this time the GOP nominee was a Guarini, a cousin of Frank's. Interesting that Sires tends not to mention his Republican heritage. I wonder what Tom, Sr. thinks about his protege ?

Going back to Schundler, he is so typical of what happens when we have exceptional figures within our party, they often have to be "destroyed" for the threat they pose to the establishment. Truth be told, I think there are way too many rich country-clubber White Socialist bigots in the GOP that are terrified at the prospect of other Republicans that have the power to lead or appeal to other ethnic groups on the basis of Conservatism and increase their presence in the party. Sure, they can tolerate a few tokens (Sires under Kean), but a mass migration of thousands of brown-skinned people into the GOP whom they might actually have to fraternize with in positions of power ? Oh, the horror !

I think people forget how close McGreevey came to knocking off Whitman after just a single term (the myth that she was popular in the state is just that - she won in '93 solely because ANYONE who ran against Florio would've won, but she was about the worst person we could've ever put up, an elitist liberal snob and big gubmint statist). She didn't almost lose because McGreevey was so appealing, but because she was so viscerally disliked by so many Republicans. Like more than a few other so-called "Republicans", I think she was (is) nothing more than a closeted Democrat, one who could maximize damage to the GOP from within (Gov. William Weld of MA was another, Ah-nold out in CA -- and unfortunately, so is the present nominee for President, a big reason I've so vociferously opposed his candidacy for more than 6 years running).